Every EU funding period is slightly different. For the period 2028-2034, the changes are more noticeable than usual.

Among the major changes in the Commission’s proposal are the following:

• Major EU funds like the common agricultural fund, EU cohesion fund, the European social fund, and the European regional development fund, are being merged into a single fund.
• The new fund will take the form of a ‘National and Regional Partnership Plan’ (NRPP). Each Member State will create a detailed plan for how they will use the money. It means money can be used from formerly separate funds to finance a single project.
• 14% of this fund must go towards social spending. The total of the 14% comes to about the same amount of money as the current budget for the ESF+. However, more things can be funded as ‘social’ spending than in the current budget, such as housing. In other words, more must be done with the same pot of money.
• A new monitoring system will measure how the Member States use their funding. This is accompanied by an annex with indicators explaining how results will be measured. It also clarifies what counts as social spending.
• The funding going towards civil society is now part of a programme called AgoraEU. Fortunately, there has not yet been a cut to the budget to support civil society.

Our main concerns at this stage

• There are no more horizontal and thematic enabling conditions. These are rules that actions and programmes must follow to be eligible for EU funding. Currently these include an obligation to respect the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), among other rules such as having to promote the transition from institutions to inclusion in the community.
• These have been replaced by ‘Horizontal principles’ that cover gender equality, social policy, protection of the environment and biodiversity, but nothing on implementing the CRPD or other human rights conventions.
• Although the proposal sets out minimum spending for social actions, there is no indication of how much money should go towards which kind of social actions. In the current Social Fund + regulation, rules state that 25% must go to social inclusion, 5% to combatting child poverty, etc. Now this earmarking has disappeared, and Member States can use the funds as they want.
• The National and Regional Partnership Plans are likely to be drawn up by ministries at national level. There is a fear of national spending of EU funds being centralised in the Member States. For highly federal countries like Spain, Belgium and Germany, etc, there is a risk that the regions will have less say over how funds are used.

• Make sure CRPD is put back in the Horizontal Principles
• Set rules around how much social spending should be used on social inclusion actions (at least 25%)
• Improve the monitoring indicators for how the EU funds are used to include better recognition of actions supporting persons with disabilities and accessibility
• Introduce new monitoring indicators for EU-funded actions on, for example, employment of persons with disabilities, representation of persons with disabilities in the media, de-institutionalisation, accessible housing for persons with disabilities, disability-inclusive international cooperation projects.
• Strengthen funding that supports persons with disability in youth mobility programmes (particularly with cost of assistance and learning support)
• Introduce clearer language preventing the use of EU funds to build or renovate institutions by referring to the European Commission Guidance on Independent Living and Inclusion in the Community in the context of EU funding
• Improve rules on how organisations of persons with disabilities are selected to be part of the partnership and monitoring processes (part of committees helping to select where funding will go in each Member State). Currently these organisations must be involved, but the best-qualified organisations are not always selected
• Establish a Disability Employment and Skills Guarantee using funding foreseen for social actions and programmes, to support persons with disabilities in obtaining work or training placements, following the system used by the existing Youth Guarantee.  

Things in the Commission’s proposals we want to protect

• The strong rules on ensuring accessibility for persons with disabilities
• The strong budget for supporting civil society
• Focus on funding for affordable housing
• Requirement to include organisations of persons with disabilities in partnership and monitoring processes
• All current references to the CRPD (although we believe it is necessary to link more provisions with respect of the Convention throughout the regulations).
• Generous budget for international development
• Monitoring indicators on inclusive education, inclusive employment, support services for persons with disabilities

We have released our resolution on the next EU budget. This will be the basis for our advocacy to the EU institutions and for our amendments to the legal texts.

EDF resolution: Ensuring the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2032 does not backtrack on the EU’s commitment to disability rights

Our amendments on the next EU budget

Other positions we have endorsed

• 100 billion euros for social spending? The devil’s in the detail